Search - what you probably never knew about Searching, but should

I was reading Tony Karrer's blog the other day. He had written a post on using Search and ways to improve your search techniques. In this post he shared some of his tips on how to use search, especially those times that you need information and need more than what Google can provide. It was part of his Tool Set series, which includes several other great posts, but I found this post to be the most helpful to me out of all of them.

In it he discusses what you can find with Google, and why you might need to use other search engines based on what you're looking for. I won't spoil it for you as he does a much better job of writing about it than I could on rehashing what he said. However, what I will say is that if you only use one search engine (probably Google), that's fine for most searches, but you should get more skilled at using Google and consider using other search engines as well. For a great listing of alternative search engines, check out the Digital Research Tools Wiki, specifically, the Data Visualization and Visual Search Tools pages. There are a lot of other resources listed here as well, so worth checking out.

I have some learning to do now, because I, like most people, am generally a pretty lazy internet search user and could use more practice on how to be more efficient and effective when I do a search.

Notes from DevLearn08: Learning 2.0 and Workplace Communities

This was another session I attended at the DevLearn2008 conference. It had to do with how learning is changing and how the LMS of the near future might work. It had some great information on how the influx of the Millennial Generation is changing learning, how informal learning is being recognized in on-the-job (OJT) learning and how to incorporate communities into an LMS to acknowledge the learning that comes from informal sources and comprises most of the learning a person will receive on job. I believe I have the hard copy of the handout that went with this session. If anyone is interested I will send you a pdf of it.

Presented by David Wilkins of mzinga

Learning is changing from 1:many (formal education) to many:many (communities)

Millennials:

• work as a tribe, not for a company
• digital generation
• close relationships with family
• openness and flat organizations, peers provide as much coaching as managers

Informal learning accounts for 87% of OJT learning (according to Jay Cross); other numbers (US Dept. of Education, for one) indicate roughly 70%

• 1:1 (99%) - emails, files
• need to make this many:many
• use discussion, use blog
• this makes it searchable

Want to make web 2.0 impact learning: change behavior, have business impact, learn a new skill

Need to find right mix of formal and informal learning

• some things, like OSHA training, should be expert led
• other things, like leadership training, could be learner led

Layer social network over company org chart to make sure social knowledge and expertise isn't lost. (Losing historical knowledge because it's not in the formal learning system can really hurt a company when someone leaves.)

Formal learning will probably split into 2 hybrids:

• formal + social media - bottom up, talent development
  
• formal + HCM (Human Capital Management) - top down, talent management

Getting people to adopt the change is the big issue

• need strong support from respected SMEs
  
• need an incentive program to make sure SMEs add value to the community
• have "gardeners" to check data and make sure it's accurate and current
• include social content to break up silos and get people talking to each other that otherwise might not have
• also helps people to relate social activities and cross-pollinate to work
• helps them learn the technology

Think through end game to determine strategy for incorporation of LMS, social media and community
2 models to get us there:

• Amazon model - social media about a learning resource
• Community model - social media for it's own sake
• piece of model is formal learning
• Amazon model could reside inside community model eventually

• ID becomes facilitator to social media elements around learning resource as well as designer of the learning resource

• move from teach a man to fish to teach a man to teach

Moderation types (all currently in use in various areas):

• Pre-moderation - post is vetted before it goes out
  
• Technology moderation - filters for certain words to only vet those posts
• Post moderation - community moderates itself through people reporting others doing inappropriate posts

DevLearn2008: Keynote Day 2 - Dan Roam

I took lots of notes for this keynote, but this was the day I was sitting behind Dr. Karrer (see the "Blogging Doesn't Hurt" post). He had his post up by the end of the session and it was brilliant. It also included much of the same information I had just taken in my own notes. Therefore, I am simply going to send you over to his post on this keynote!

I also recommend finding out more about the Back of the Napkin at Dan Roam's site or in his book. Especially good reading for those of us that are visually-minded anyway!

Notes from DevLearn08: Work Literacy Session

This was a session presented by Dr. Tony Karrer on Work Literacy

A brief intro into what is meant by Work Literacy from the About page:

Work Literacy is based on the beliefs that:

• With the growth of new technologies, explosion of new information, and accessibility of experts around the world, there’s a growing gap between the work practices and skills that most knowledge workers possess and the resources available to them.
• As knowledge workers we need practical skills, methods and tools that will improve our effectiveness and help us stay on top of our game.
• This is an issue that’s evolving quickly and we need a way to start discussing the implications, sharing ideas and learning how to better manage our work and learning.

Again, I found this session very interesting, so my notes are not in perfect English, but I think this is something any instructional designer looking to the future should be looking into.

Memory:
Cognition <-> Working memory <-> Memory

• Metacognition, metamemory: tools, methods - the way gen x and boomers learned
• Millenials have google, pdas, computers, and infinite ways to search for information that would have been impossible to find using a card catalog and a microfiche reader

Information Overload:

• amount of info available now is like 18th century person being bombarded with the NY times, which has more info in one week than in their entire lifetime
• brain likes finding new info and craves it like a drug, so info overload had negative affect because we aren't adapting well
• skills are not keeping up with the changes - Example: "~" operator in Google = "like" so searches synonyms - almost no one knows what this is and doesn't use it, so they are now building it into the search itself. Just shows how many people don't keep up with new technology.
  

To find information you can search Google but you don't have validation on the information. Can also use tool like Linked In to search for experts (can select degrees away to make sure you get people that will talk to you) that can give you validation on what you find in Google search.

To become more productive:

• Using tools like del.icio.us to tag bookmarks and can find almost anything you've been to now with desktop search and Google search history
• Blogging is another way of taking notes and putting down what's important to you
• RSS feeds allow you to keep up with all the blogs and news updates
• Online apps (ex: google spreadsheets) allow for online editing by multiple people

21st Century: Concept Workers

• A Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink
• Most valuable people in an organization
• eLearning 2.0 - shifting to learner-centered collaborative informal learning
• tools include blogs, wikis, social bookmarking
• use tools, including blogging, to become expert and evangelist for adoption
  

**wikipatterns site and book** - tools to help spur adoption of a wiki and helping it grow to be a flourishing community

If you are interested in seeing the handout for this session, let me know and I will send you the pdf file.

I'm not crazy!

OK, so I've been thinking about blogging for a while. You know, being a web 2.0 fan, you should eat your own dogfood and all. So, thanks to some friendly goading from the speakers today at DevLearn, I finally decided to just jump in and start. That should round out my web 2.0 work as I've adopted just about everything else already!

I've been at the DevLearn 2008 conference (day 1 today) and finally found people that believe, like me, that the current corporate learning and development environment is truely dysfunctional and I wasn't just imagining things. What a relief! I'm really not crazy - well, at least not about that.

However, it does look like things are really as hard as I had imagined they would be about getting learning groups and the corporations (or any groups, really) they reside in to take the leap and really embrace informal learning, web 2.0 or pretty much anything outside of the current SOPs.

I'm hoping that the types of people that I've seen and met here at DevLearn 2008 can help make that culture shift happen. At least I know I'm not alone now!